A MAN who smashed a bottle over a soldier?s head in an unprovoked attack in Nuneaton town centre has been jailed - more than three years after the incident....

A MAN who smashed a bottle over a soldier?s head in an unprovoked attack in Nuneaton town centre has been jailed - more than three years after the incident.

Scott Prosser, aged 27, of Heath End Road, Stockingford, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to a charge of wounding.

Prosecuting, Graham Mooney said that in December 1997 three soldiers from Bramcote Barracks spent a Friday night in the town centre, and after visiting some pubs ended up in Millennium?s night club.

When they left at 2.20am they decided to get something to eat and went to a burger van in Bondgate where they saw another group of young men, including Prosser, hanging around.

The group began singing a derogatory song about the Army.

Prosser ran at soldier John Worthington, as he was paying for a burger and smashed a bottle over his head - causing a wound over his eye which needed seven stitches.

The soldiers ran off and were chased by Prosser and his friends until they reached the police station and went inside for help.

Mr Mooney said that Prosser, who had previous convictions for causing damage and threatening behaviour, should have appeared at the court to stand trial in June 1998, but failed to appear.

Judge James Pyke told the defendant: ?You attacked another young man with a bottle. I have seen photographs of those cuts, and they are most unpleasant and show how close he came to receiving a more serious injury to his eye.

?This is, regrettably, another example of an incident of violence in a public place after the offender has been drinking.

?It is an old offence, but it would be quite wrong for you to derive any benefit from that fact, since you are the cause of that delay.?